


The Bookshop Angel

by TryingToScribble



Series: #MystradeStoryTime and other Twitter nonsense [8]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Idiots in Love, IneffableHusbandsStoryTime, M/M, Teasing, Twitter Prompt, aziraphale learns about instagram, cuteness, everyone thinks they're married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26435749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TryingToScribble/pseuds/TryingToScribble
Summary: headcanon: crowley (so utterly in love) secretly took these photos of aziraphale one evening at the bookshop. and no one can convince me otherwise.Pictures on Twitter here
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: #MystradeStoryTime and other Twitter nonsense [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1397485
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	1. Stupid Handsome Face

It all started innocently enough with a few stares and lingering looks as he walked down the street. It wasn’t a common occurrence but it wasn’t like it had never happened before either. Some humans were just a little more open to feeling his presence without understanding what they were feeling, so he ignored it as normal.

Then the staring became pointing and whispering, gossip passing between the humans as he passed them in the street. It made him a little fidgety but he still couldn’t imagine that it was anything sinister. No, both heaven and hell were quite a bit more melodramatic than that. It was just something that he noticed and would have to keep his eye on as well as his angelic presence.

It wasn’t really until a young woman he was certain he had never met before greeted him as ‘Angel’ as she served him his pastries with a smile. Aziraphale could only smile and nod back as he took his purchase away. Perhaps he was simply overthinking it all. Perhaps she was flirting. He had no idea how young people flirted these days. Then again, it was a very young lady who should not have seen his corporation in any kind of way. Perhaps instead she had been to the bookshop before, but then surely she wouldn’t have been so friendly had she been on the receiving end of his stern requests for his customers to leave. No, perhaps he visited this store before and Crowley had been with him. Yes, that had to be it. He had simply forgotten.

Aziraphale wasn’t convinced he had ever forgotten anything before, though. Yet, would he know if he had forgotten something? He wasn’t sure. It played on his mind.

It played on his mind until it happened again. And again. And again. So he finally plucked up his courage and just asked one of them.

“Excuse me, young man, but do I know you? Only, you called me Angel and no one calls me Angel. That isn’t my name.”

The young man smiled, if a little shy now, and shook his head. “Sorry. No. You don’t know me, but I know you. Well, of you, I guess. You’re famous.”

“Famous?” Was all Aziraphale could say.

“Uh, yeah. Don’t you know?” The man’s face slowly drifted into confusion and dismay. “Are you not the Bookshop Angel?”

Aziraphale blinked. No human should know that.

The man rushed to explain himself in Aziraphale’s confusion.

“You know, on Instagram. I think it’s your husband’s account? He posts pictures of you in your bookshop and they kind of went viral. Like, huge.”

“What’s an Instagram?” Aziraphale began and then his face scrunched even more in his confusion like he only just registered the rest of the words. “Husband? I don’t have a husband.”

The man paled and seemed to shrink in apology. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I guess you just look a lot like him. Sorry.”

Aziraphale began shaking his head before the man finished speaking. “No, no. It’s fine. I just- I own a- Well- Could I trouble you to see these pictures?”

The man seems only happy to, with the knowledge that he wasn’t in some stranger’s bad books. He pulls a sleek mobile phone from his pocket and swipes across the screen a few times before holding it out to Aziraphale. “You can see them all if you just…” He swiped his finger up the screen to scroll through a couple of the pictures and then allowed Aziraphale to do it for himself.

The pictures were all indeed Aziraphale in his bookshop. He had no idea that they had been taken at all. Crowley must have taken them all secretly or indeed while Aziraphale was engrossed in some book or meal… Everything. They had been taken at all manner of places at all manner of times. All of them he was certain he had simply been in the company of the demon. But said demon wasn’t in them. Only Aziraphale. But why would he take them? And why indeed would he then post them where everyone could see.

“You have to admit this guy really looks like you.”

The embarrassed laughed comment brought him out of his musings. “Well, that’s because I am him.” He admitted with an apologetic smile. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to make a liar of you.”

The man’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped a little as he stuttered and shrugged. “No. That’s- I mean it’s fine. I guess I just assumed your hus- I mean, whoever, would tell you if he posted them.” The words hung for a few moments before Aziraphale plucked up the courage to ask his next question.

“And why does everyone know me as, what was it, Bookshop Angel?”

“Oh. Well, that’s the name of the account, see?” He slid a finger down the screen to bring the page back to the top and pointed at the username. “And, uh…” He went a slight shade of pink. “Well, it’s obvious you’re not the one posting them when you read the captions.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Sorry I thought he was your husband but he doesn’t ever correct people who comment about it and, well, he kind of talks about you like, well…”

“Like what, young man?”

The man made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat and simply tapped on the top image in answer.

Aziraphale read over the caption and all but went red himself. Oh.

_‘We had plans to go out to dinner at the Ritz tonight but he’s absorbed in his damn books again and looks too damn adorable for me to shift so I guess I’ll just sit here and just stare at his stupid handsome face. Again.’_

It’s typical Crowley but it also isn’t. The impatience and backhanded compliments are exactly what he expects but it’s almost as if he’s talking like-

“Well, like he loves you.”


	2. I Don't Tell Lies

Aziraphale quite literally fell over Crowley when he returned to the bookshop to find the man on his doorstep.

“Crowley!”

“What?” The demon smirked. “First you miss our lunch outing and now you’re too busy to even see me right in front of you?”

“No!” Aziraphale said at length. It was quite defensive for an angel who simply accidentally fell over a demon. “I missed lunch?” He quickly switched the conversation as he led them through the bookshop and into the back room. “When did we arrange lunch? I never miss lunch.”

“Have I ever lied to you?”

“Yes!”

“Oh? When was that then?”

“It was… Well-” Aziraphale fidgeted with his own hands as his face became redder as he realised he couldn’t think of a single lie. “You’re a demon. It’s what you do.” He eventually surmised.

“Oh, absolutely. Lie all the time, I do. S’in the job description. Lie and cheat and sleep for decades at a time.” Crowley nodded and even waved his hands as if it was something to boast about. He caught Aziraphale’s eye before adding, “Never lied to you, though. Especially about food.”

Aziraphale couldn’t think of anything to say. It was also difficult to keep eye contact with such an open, genuine gaze. As his eyes lowered the demon clicked his tongue and stood to meet the angel across the room.

“Don’t be like that, Angel.”

“Angel.” Aziraphale repeated under his breath.

Crowley caught it, though. “Yeah. Angel. What, you don’t like it all of a sudden?”

“No, it’s not that.” Aziraphale huffed a laugh as he remembered each time someone else called him Angel. “That’s how I found out.”

It was Crowley’s turn to be confused. “Found out what?”

Aziraphale flicked his gaze back to Crowley’s and suddenly found that it was incredibly fun to hold all of the cards in a discussion with a demon. He went from shy to coy in no time at all and he noticed how Crowley frowned as the demon saw it happen.

“How I found out that I only like it when _you_ call me Angel.”

Crowley’s face didn’t even have time to blush as his thoughts went from embarrassment at the action being mentioned to confusion as to whoever else would possibly call his Angel that.

“That’s because you’re an angel. No one else knows you’re an angel.” Crowley attempted to explain to himself. Then he remembered why he _actually_ called Aziraphale that and he remembered that these were humans he was dealing with. “Who else is calling you Angel?” He demanded while trying really hard to make sure it didn’t sound demanding.

“Everyone.”

“Wh-! Everyone? What?”

Aziraphaled laughed and Crowley scowled at him for the effort. “Now, now, dear. You can’t well get upset with them when it’s your fault, now, can you?”

Yet another turn that caught Crowley off guard. When had this turned from his joking on the doorstep to Aziraphale joking with him? He made some indistinct sounds that could have been interpreted as him choking on his own spit. “My fault?”

“Hmm, yes.” Aziraphale smiled innocently as he slowly lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. A mobile phone appeared in his previously empty hand. Crowley’s phone. If it had been anyone else Crowley would have jumped on them to retrieve it but he was confused and Aziraphale had no idea how to even use a mobile phone.

Which is why he made some more choking noises as Aziraphale stepped out of his reach anyway and swiped at the screen like he knew exactly what a mobile was used for.

“Angel!”

“Indeed.” Aziraphale nodded and tapped a finger to his chin, pretending to think about what he was seeing. “More specifically, The Bookshop Angel.”

Crowley stilled immediately and all emotion drained from his face.

“Yes, I’ve heard quite a lot about some Bookshop Angel that looks a lot like me.” Aziraphale continued as he scrolled. “I have to say, it’s quite uncanny. Wouldn’t you say?” He held up the phone for Crowley to see.

Crowley still couldn’t speak. Aziraphale was never to find out about that. It was his private way of expressing… stuff. Well, shit, that was the problem wasn’t it? It wasn’t private.

“You know full well I posted those pictures of you, Angel.” He admitted through his teeth and then pressed his lips together hard.

“Oh? Well, this one here says you love my ‘stupid smile’.” He read and continued to read down the posts. “This one says something about my ‘stupid handsome face’, and this one mentions my ‘silly, cute nose scrunch’. Now, I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean but I take it I wasn’t stupid that day.”

“You’re not stupid.” It came out as a mumble but he meant it. Even with being teased with his secret feelings he couldn’t allow Aziraphale to think he was being called stupid.

Aziraphale hummed his recognition but couldn’t help himself from reading ahead. “No, just ‘stupidly dashing in every way’.”

Crowley groaned. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Oh? So it was a lie, then.” Aziraphale ventured, knowing full well from Crowley’s horrified expression that it wasn’t.

There was a beat. And another. They stared at each other then, both braving the gaze. Crowley gave in first.

“No.”

“No?”

Crowley sighed in defeat or relief. Both. Then it was like Crowley finally stopped pulling himself back. He reached out to stroke his thumbs over Aziraphale’s cheeks. “Never, Angel.”

Aziraphale’s smile turned soft and he allowed the phone to disappear back into Crowley’s pocket as he allowed his forehead to fall against Crowley’s in a display he never allowed himself before. He didn’t need to play this game anymore.

Well, just one more thing couldn’t hurt.

“I don’t think you need to worry about anyone calling me Angel, my dear.”

“Why ‘s’at?” Crowley asked sceptically but didn’t move from Aziraphale’s space, he even closed his eyes.

“Indeed.” Aziraphale placed a hand over Crowley’s on his face. “They’re rather under the impression that you’re my husband.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Insert more choking noises here*


End file.
